Pierce Brosnan

The production notes for "The Thomas Crown Affair," a stylish remake of the 1968 caper movie starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, say that the filmmakers were concerned about finding a leading lady charismatic enough to hold the screen with Pierce Brosnan, who plays the title character.In casting Rene Russo, they found her and then some: Russo, who has rarely had a chance to really shine in mostly supporting roles, delivers such a magnetic, glamorous and sexy performance that Brosnan is quickly relegated to second fiddle.

DVDS Starring Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Rachel McAdams, Patricia Clarkson - Directed by Ira Sachs - Sony Pictures - $28.96, $38.96 Blu-ray Tired of being married to his noble but unexciting (at least to him) wife, Pat (Patricia Clarkson), businessman Harry Allen (Chris Cooper) decides the only honorable thing to do is kill her - especially since naive young Kay (Rachel McAdams) is ready to pick up the slack. Only problem is, his best friend, Richard (Pierce Brosnan), also has a thing for Kay - and isn't sure Pat deserves to end up dead.

The only difference between The Matador and more conventional odd-couple movies is that one of the buddies stays married and writer-director Richard Shepard keeps his characters mostly out of their apartments and on the move. It hinges on a chance meeting at a Mexico City hotel bar between a hit man who is scraping psychic bottom (Pierce Brosnan) and a Denver businessman (Greg Kinnear) who's about to strike it rich or do the same. The slim story of their unlikely buddyhood resembles the cheesy whopper you might hear from a newfound friend in a saloon at roughly 3:30 a.m. "Just consider me the best cocktail party story you ever met," says Brosnan, and that just about sums everything up. The Matador (The Weinstein Co.)

Mamma Mia!, the international stage musical? It's selling out, SRO, in its normal manner. For years I've been quoted in endless ads as saying this show is "the most fun on Broadway." A lot of insiders tut-tutted this and are already looking askance at the film. But now I can add that this phenomenon will be the most fun for summer movie fans as well. And if you didn't like the super angst and materialism of Sex and the City, here you'll find three female friends (and one daughter) who are charming and also good-hearted, giddy and able to take a joke on themselves and their genre.

DVDS Starring Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Rachel McAdams, Patricia Clarkson - Directed by Ira Sachs - Sony Pictures - $28.96, $38.96 Blu-ray Tired of being married to his noble but unexciting (at least to him) wife, Pat (Patricia Clarkson), businessman Harry Allen (Chris Cooper) decides the only honorable thing to do is kill her - especially since naive young Kay (Rachel McAdams) is ready to pick up the slack. Only problem is, his best friend, Richard (Pierce Brosnan), also has a thing for Kay - and isn't sure Pat deserves to end up dead.

Stumbling over a rival's legal files and stuffing her face with junk food, Julianne Moore succumbs to routine Hollywood caricature of the sexually repressed professional woman in Laws of Attraction. This attempt at a battle-of-the-sexes courtroom romance pits Moore's legendary divorce attorney Audrey Woods against a rumpled, equally unstoppable male divorce attorney, Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan). The model may be Adam's Rib, but in that entertaining, sophisticated Tracy-Hepburn vehicle, the principals were already married, their strengths and weaknesses well-matched.

In the news Pierce Brosnan's license to kill is revoked A single, surprising phone call and it was over. That's how Pierce Brosnan says he learned that his services as James Bond would no longer be required. "One phone call, that's all it took!" the 52-year-old actor tells Entertainment Weekly magazine in its Aug. 19 issue. "You know, the movie career for me really started with Bond," says Brosnan, acknowledging that by the time GoldenEye premiered in 1995, he was already 42. He then starred as 007 in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

There's way too much blarney in Evelyn, a treacly father's-rights diatribe that will leave you feeling as though every heartstring has been tugged 20 times over by the time the final credits roll. What makes the movie's failure to tone down the cheap sentiment even more egregious is that it's based on a true story, an Irish court case from 1953 that essentially gave single parents the right to keep their children and not have them end up in a Catholic orphanage far from home. The law that separated children from their parents was a moral outrage, and the trial that brought it down must have been a corker.

"Virtual reality" is state-of-the-art hyper-reality as induced either by the most sophisticated of computers or the mostadolescent of imaginations. Now comes "The Lawnmower Man," the first feature movie to make extensive use of the former but, alas, not the first movie to make extensive use of the latter.The former, in fact, is quite the best thing in the film, and perhaps worth the price of admission. As a visual adventure, "The Lawnmower Man" is great fun: We get to bodysurf through some kind of cosmic mulching machine which tries to grind us to atoms with great, gnashing iron pyramids (it's like be swallowed by a killer whale the size of the Hindenburg)

JUST WONDERING:* Whatever happened to actress Stephanie Zimbalist, who sparkled for several seasons as a smart private eye (with Pierce Brosnan) in the series "Remington Steele?"Well, one of her post-series activities surfaces tonight on cable's Lifetime network. She's starring in "The Killing Mind," a new movie in which she plays a detective again (at 9 p.m. on the basic cable service). But this time she's on the Los Angeles police force and specializes in psychological analysis to solve crimes.

The only difference between The Matador and more conventional odd-couple movies is that one of the buddies stays married and writer-director Richard Shepard keeps his characters mostly out of their apartments and on the move. It hinges on a chance meeting at a Mexico City hotel bar between a hit man who is scraping psychic bottom (Pierce Brosnan) and a Denver businessman (Greg Kinnear) who's about to strike it rich or do the same. The slim story of their unlikely buddyhood resembles the cheesy whopper you might hear from a newfound friend in a saloon at roughly 3:30 a.m. "Just consider me the best cocktail party story you ever met," says Brosnan, and that just about sums everything up. The Matador (The Weinstein Co.)

In the news Pierce Brosnan's license to kill is revoked A single, surprising phone call and it was over. That's how Pierce Brosnan says he learned that his services as James Bond would no longer be required. "One phone call, that's all it took!" the 52-year-old actor tells Entertainment Weekly magazine in its Aug. 19 issue. "You know, the movie career for me really started with Bond," says Brosnan, acknowledging that by the time GoldenEye premiered in 1995, he was already 42. He then starred as 007 in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Stumbling over a rival's legal files and stuffing her face with junk food, Julianne Moore succumbs to routine Hollywood caricature of the sexually repressed professional woman in Laws of Attraction. This attempt at a battle-of-the-sexes courtroom romance pits Moore's legendary divorce attorney Audrey Woods against a rumpled, equally unstoppable male divorce attorney, Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan). The model may be Adam's Rib, but in that entertaining, sophisticated Tracy-Hepburn vehicle, the principals were already married, their strengths and weaknesses well-matched.

There's way too much blarney in Evelyn, a treacly father's-rights diatribe that will leave you feeling as though every heartstring has been tugged 20 times over by the time the final credits roll. What makes the movie's failure to tone down the cheap sentiment even more egregious is that it's based on a true story, an Irish court case from 1953 that essentially gave single parents the right to keep their children and not have them end up in a Catholic orphanage far from home. The law that separated children from their parents was a moral outrage, and the trial that brought it down must have been a corker.

NEW YORK - Pierce Brosnan strides through the doorway of the Manhattan hotel bar, ready for a beer. It's a clubby, intimate Upper East Side room, suitably James Bond-ish but for the rhythm-and-blues Muzak oozing from a discreet speaker. Brosnan asks the waitress for an imported brew and a single French cigarette. Informally dressed in dark jacket and black open-collar shirt, he looks terrific for a man of 29, which he has not been for 20 years. When you try to proffer sympathy for his publicity marathon, he refuses it politely.

He's back. Bond. James Bond. Double-oh seven himself. In Die Another Day. Opens tomorrow. In theaters everywhere. Why am I writing like this? Don't know. Maybe 'cause it's how they talk in the trailers. Clipped. Dramatic. The legend continues. Pierce Brosnan. Halle Berry. In the greatest Bond movie of them all! Die ... Another ... Day. OK, enough of that. You could go crazy writing that way. But the fact is, I'm a huge James Bond fan. Have been since I was a kid in the early '60s and nearly singed my corneas watching Ursula Andress wade out of the surf in that shimmering white bikini in Dr. No, the very first Bond movie.

Paul McGann is little-known in America, but being cast as the eighth Doctor in the latest reincarnation of the TV series "Doctor Who" has showed him what fame can be."It's like a Marx Brothers film or something," the star of the film "Withnail & I" says from Hollywood, where he's been run through the publicity mill for the TV movie that's airing on Fox tonight.In Britain, the publicity has been even more intense. While he was filming the show in Canada, his family called him about the flood of articles in the press.

He's back. Bond. James Bond. Double-oh seven himself. In Die Another Day. Opens tomorrow. In theaters everywhere. Why am I writing like this? Don't know. Maybe 'cause it's how they talk in the trailers. Clipped. Dramatic. The legend continues. Pierce Brosnan. Halle Berry. In the greatest Bond movie of them all! Die ... Another ... Day. OK, enough of that. You could go crazy writing that way. But the fact is, I'm a huge James Bond fan. Have been since I was a kid in the early '60s and nearly singed my corneas watching Ursula Andress wade out of the surf in that shimmering white bikini in Dr. No, the very first Bond movie.

The production notes for "The Thomas Crown Affair," a stylish remake of the 1968 caper movie starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, say that the filmmakers were concerned about finding a leading lady charismatic enough to hold the screen with Pierce Brosnan, who plays the title character.In casting Rene Russo, they found her and then some: Russo, who has rarely had a chance to really shine in mostly supporting roles, delivers such a magnetic, glamorous and sexy performance that Brosnan is quickly relegated to second fiddle.

What a man! What a life! What cool stuff!James Bond sips his Smirnoff vodka martini; the women draw near. He calls Moneypenny on his Ericsson mobile phone; he gets through no matter what. He drives his BMW motorcycle off the top of a building; his hair isn't even ruffled.You, too, can own this stuff!007: Super secret agent ... Super sales agent.When ever-debonair Bond returns after a two-year hiatus to movie theaters this week in United Artists' "Tomorrow Never Dies," he will do so with an unprecedented license to sell, sell, sell.